Channel 4 Shakes Up Its Evening News Lineup

WTVJ-Ch. 4 is adding a newscast, subtracting extraneous titles and dividing some anchor duties in a bid to multiply ratings.

A week from today, the NBC-owned station will introduce a 4:30 newscast. The same day, what is now 4News Now at 5 will be cut into distinct half-hour shows with separate anchor teams.

The 4News Now title will be jettisoned, as will the Nightcast for the 11 p.m. show. All WTVJ newscasts will henceforth be identified by the times at which they air for example, Channel 4 News at 4:30.

Jose Diaz-Balart and Jennifer Voloppi will anchor the newest and earliest show. Tony Segreto will share anchor duties with different female co-anchors on the subsequent programs. Voloppi will remain at the anchor desk at 5 p.m. Nancy Humphries, who joined the station from South Carolina last month, will take over at 5:30 and Michele Gillen will remain Segreto's 6 p.m. partner.

Gillen and Segreto will continue as the anchors of the 11 p.m. newscast.

If anything can be read into such machinations, it would appear that Gillen's star is descending slightly while Voloppi's is on the rise.

CBS programmer leaving

Jeff Sagansky, a protege of Brandon Tartikoff, apparently picked up more than just how to program a network from his former mentor at NBC. Sagansky, who has resigned as President of CBS Entertainment, also learned the ideal time to step down.

Sagansky, who guided the network's rise from third to first place in the Nielsen ratings, is leaving CBS next month, as soon as the 1994-95 schedule is in place. He will be succeed by his top lieutenant, Peter Tortorici.

In 1990, Tartikoff quit NBC after six years atop the ratings at a time when everyone in the industry was predicting the network was ripe for a fall. Sure enough, the following season, NBC began its descent to third place, where it is now mired.

Similar conditions are in place at CBS. Many of the network's key programs - Murder, She Wrote, Murphy Brown and Northern Exposure - seem to have peaked. Meanwhile, shows such as Diagnosis Murder, Burke's Law and Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, as well as four news magazines, attract older viewers, who are a hard sell to Madison Avenue.

Moreover, it is questionable if CBS would have won this season without the World Series and Winter Olympics. ABC, which seems poised to rise to the top, has the World Series this fall, and the next Winter Olympics are in 1998.

Sagansky came to CBS in January 1990 after running Tri-Star Pictures, and it is speculated that his next job will again be running a studio.

Under his leadership, CBS introduced Northern Exposure, triple Emmy-winner Picket Fences and Dr. Quinn, Medicine Women, which gave CBS control of Saturday night. He also participated in the negotiations to lure David Letterman from NBC. He leaves CBS significantly stronger than it was when he arrived.

While at NBC under Tartikoff, Sagansky had a role in the development of Cheers, The Cosby Show, Family Ties and Miami Vice.

Tortorici is a class act who should provide a smooth transition. He has been second in command since 1991 and appeared to be philosophically in synch with Sagansky.

Rush slides back an hour

Rush Limbaugh fans shouldn't panic if they turn to WCIX-Ch. 6 this morning at 9 and find their favorite missing. The CBS-owned station has rescheduled Limbaugh for 10 a.m. He also will continue to be shown at 12:35 a.m.

Vicki!, the talk show starring Vicki Lawrence, takes over the 9 a.m. hour on an interim basis. In the fall, a new talk show hosted by Australian Gordon Elliott will be introduced at 9 a.m.

Limbaugh established again last week that he is a potent audience magnet. His guest appearance on Hearts Afire last Monday helped give the sitcom - produced by the Clintons' best friends Harry and Linda Bloodworth-Thomason - its highest ratings ever.

Last week's Hearts Afire also won its time period and was the highest rated show on CBS that night, topping Murphy Brown, which preceded it, and Northern Exposure, which followed.

Last fall, Limbaugh was invited on The Late Show with David Letterman in the hopes he could somewhat neutralize Howard Stern on The Tonight Show. Letterman and Limbaugh wound up beating Jay Leno and Stern handily.

Leno turned the tables a few months later. He invited Limbaugh on his program on the night Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding skated on CBS. The Tonight Show had its highest ratings in months.

Ratings for Limbaugh's syndicated program, which is seen at various times around the country, are up more then 30 percent over last year.

Whether or not Limbaugh can, or should, sell Florida orange juice is debatable. His ability to draw a crowd is inarguable.